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Roadmapping a Success Story for Commute Broward

Working together with the Broward County Transportation Management Association, Starmark created the new Commute Broward website to help more of our neighbors discover more interesting ways to get around.

The new site addresses a big gap: before this there was no single source of good information for how to get around our county. Now we’ve created one simple map of all transportation options than any resident can use — on any device.

There’s more to life than traffic

Broward County has a population of more than two million people, but unlike other major metro areas, online info sources about transit hadn’t kept pace with the options available. In other words, Google Maps and other mass-market mapping solutions didn’t include any data or route information related to alternative modes of transit in Broward County (community shuttles, micro-transit, walking, last-mile scooters and bike rental locations).

Closing that information gap was part of a county-wide Transportation Demand Management (TDM) strategy to educate and encourage travelers to look at alternate transportation options. We wanted to bring our neighbors better mobility, more affordability, less congestion and reduced vehicle emissions, and, ultimately, the goal was to make every trip better while making our entire transportation system better.

Mobile UI Elements

Building a better commute starts with a better map

Starmark created a new site focused around a better commute, featuring a map integrating GIS data, Google’s map data and proprietary local data.

The outcome is a single, best place to plan any trip — to or from anywhere in the county.

The design was rigorously economized and simplified to create an excellent user experience on any device and ensure compliance with Google’s new user experience and site speed criteria for search rankings.

Local TDM programs like Commute Broward are a crucial strategy for meeting U.S. climate targets and align with the MPO’s vision for a more connected community.
— Gregory Stuart, TMA Board Chair and Broward MPO Director

The result is a mobile-optimized elegant site that puts the visitor’s primary need front and center, while also delivering useful information about alternative commuting strategies.

Interactive Route Map

Gregory Stuart, TMA Board Chair and Director of the Broward Metropolitan Planning Organization (MPO), shares that, “This expansion and program launch represent a significant milestone for us. We are dedicated to improving the daily commute experience for all. Local TDM programs like Commute Broward are a crucial strategy for meeting U.S. climate targets and align with the MPO’s vision for a more connected community.”

Expanding this effort

The site is built for growth and expansion. Our roadmap includes plans to create a custom map functionality employers can use to create ideal commuting strategies for employees, as well as incorporating additional data to make the map even more robust.

From Single Fundraiser to Strategic Mindset Shift

Joe DiMaggio Children’s Hospital, a top-tier specialized pediatric facility, relies heavily on donor generosity to save and heal children. As research, surgical technology and treatments rapidly evolve, saving lives requires continuous funding. Sporadic one-off fundraising initiatives are rarely enough, no matter how successful each may be.

So when Joe DiMaggio Children’s Hospital asked Starmark to create its newest fundraising campaign, we aimed higher: empowering JDCH to reap the rewards long after the initial campaign’s conclusion.

Diagnosis: Bigger Brand Impact and Year-Round Inspiration

Joe DiMaggio Children’s Hospital (JDCH) in South Florida is a nationally recognized specialized pediatric healthcare leader. Their team handles 360,000+ patient encounters annually. As South Florida’s healthcare demands rapidly outgrew the hospital’s available resources, its leadership launched a five-year capital campaign to raise expansion funding. The need: four additional hospital floors; new medical technology and treatments to improve patient outcomes; and greater support for families and underserved communities.

Treatment Plan: Convey JDCH’s Life-Changing Impact to Boost Donations

Starmark developed and implemented Catch The Love: a multi-channel effort to support the foundation’s fundraising campaign. However, it was built to be much bigger in scope. Catch The Love shifted the mindset, instilling a more proactive culture of year-round giving internally and externally. The goal was to embed a 365-day philanthropic mindset in donors, staff, hospital partners, patients and families.

Stirring visuals and emotional messaging showcased the life-changing impact of JDCH’s specialized capabilities on thousands of Florida families and those traveling here from other states/countries — and the need for continual support to keep saving more lives. A photoshoot fueled the campaign and all supporting content needs.

Catch The Love campaign components included campus signage, email and mail, mar-com collateral, dedicated campaign landing page and branded gifts for VIP donor events.

The result?
$50 million dollars raised the first year: that’s 50% higher than the original year 1 goal.
The FULL 5-YEAR campaign goal was achieved by the end of Year 1!

Follow-Up Care: Love Builds Hope

After the ambitious expansion was completed, it was time to share the exciting new capabilities with all the people who made it possible, as well as the greater South Florida community. Starmark partnered with JDCH to brainstorm and plan a series of experiential brand-building and community relations events under the inspiring “Love Builds Hope” umbrella theme.

The theme, a natural extension of “Catch The Love”, celebrates the power of what love had built. Thousands more children would now experience new hope, healing and health thanks to what JDCH donors, staff, patients and families all built together.

Each Love Builds Hope event was customized to a particular audience’s needs and interests. These audiences included donors, community VIPs, hospital and government leadership, staff, South Florida pediatricians; non-profit partners, patients, families and the community at large.

JDC165 LoveBuildsHope Elevator 72x30 mech 01 Page 1 web

“Love Builds Hope” was embedded everywhere: in signage, food, drinks and activities. Indoor events offered all-access, personalized tours, including areas visitors rarely see. There were meet & greets with top pediatric surgeons and operating room tours with live demos of surgical tech.

Attendees strolled through expanded patient and family spaces. Interactive games and fun photo ops kept everyone engaged and sharing on social channels. Each guest left with a touching gift: art postcards hand-drawn by JDCH littlest patients. There was also a merch boutique with proceeds donated to the JDCH foundation.

Patients, families and the greater South Florida community enjoyed their own celebration: an outdoor launch party with food, games, festivities and fun for little ones and adults alike.

Robust Outcomes: Brand and Philanthropic Success

CATCH THE LOVE: $50 MILLION RAISED IN YEAR 1: MORE THAN 50% OVER ORIGINAL YEAR 1 GOAL
LOVE BUILDS HOPE: BIG BUSINESS IMPACT: BRAND BUILDING | COMMUNITY RELATIONS

Award-winning JDCH Love Builds and Catch the Love campaigns are just two of our many healthcare successes. Ask us about our community engagement, women’s health; U.S. veterans healthcare; rehab; long-term senior care; hospice; and other healthcare initiatives that reflect all life stages across the continuum of care. We’ve supported virtually every healthcare niche: let’s talk about driving more robust outcomes for yours!

Celebrating 15 years of eTips

Fifteen years ago, we tapped into our subject matter experts to document tips & tricks and answer frequently asked questions that we were getting from our clients. Since then, it has expanded into a platform for everything from reinforcing branding fundamentals to testing new technologies. Our team did a deep dive on the eTips analytics to pull our most popular. Drum roll please, as we reveal our top eTips:

15. QR Codes are dead, long live SMS

Back when Microsoft shut down its proprietary QR code reader service, we heralded the end of this tech. Little did we know a pandemic and Apple’s native camera integration would bring the QR code roaring back to popularity.

14. 10 Steps to the Perfect Visual Brand Identity

Years ago, we took the time to answer several frequently asked questions about visual branding. We still get similar questions when working with someone new, even today. And the tips in this article still hold up.

13. What’s the difference between AR, MR and Spatial Computing? Here’s why you should care.

When Apple launched ARKit, the Microsoft Hololens was still in vogue and the Magic Leap One came out, we were fielding tons of questions (and doing lots of polite corrections) about the differences between augmented reality, virtual reality, mixed reality and spatial computing. A lot more people must have had those questions, too, because this is one of our site’s top articles.

12. Damage Control for Bad Press

We wrote this article and a cheat sheet on the topic to help our clients navigate an emerging world of blogs, review sites and other sources of potential bad press. A lot has changed in the intervening years, but all that time has really just made online reputation management an even more important consideration for every business.

11. Does Google AdSense make sense for your blog or website?

Once upon a time, it wasn’t clear what sites should and shouldn’t be ad-supported using Google AdSense. Moreover, many people at the time didn’t even know you could simply add advertising to your site through Google.

10. Sell that first augmented reality project: Our 8-step guide to getting it done and getting promoted

This eTip turned into a full-blown how-to article. We wrote this around the time of Starmark’s 40th anniversary, and we have it on good authority that the tips in here have launched several new AR projects in the last five years.

9. Sponsored Editorial Content: The Blurring of Earned and Paid Media

Back before the ubiquity of Doctors hate her for this one weird trick, it was important for Starmark to educate our clients about the pros and cons of native advertising and sponsored content. From the vantage point of today’s internet, it’s hard to imagine a time before we took those blurred lines for granted.

8. 5 ways to build yourself as a brand

Brand is a topic that will get any marketer waxing philosophical. So, of course, this was one of the hot topics we tackled in the early days of eTips.

7. 6 Tips for Avoiding Nausea in Virtual Reality

In addition to being one of our most popular and helpful articles, our tips for avoiding nausea in VR article was the first eTip where we created an accompanying YouTube video.

6. Understanding Your Hierarchy Of Social Media Needs

It’s funny to look back at this, with all that has changed, and realize that many of the elements in this article still form the basis for a solid social strategy. The format, channels and considerations may be be different today, but the basic theory of this article holds up pretty well.

5. Focus on what consumers want with a focus group

Starmark has always been a research and data-driven organization. So it’s no surprise we tackled this topic early (eTip #26, believe it or not).

4. Social Influence, should you care?

With the advent of social media influencers as an industry, there are a whole host of new professional-grade tools to map and place value on social influence. But it’s fun to think back on a time when Klout was the end-all, be-all of social influence.

3. How to do Vanity URLs right

To this day, this simple article is one of our site’s top performers. It just goes to show that vanity URLs are just as important today — and just as hard to get right, apprently.

2. 9 Ways to Create Exclusivity

Another tip from our first couple years of eTip publications, this one is another fun testament to the fact that as much as things change, some advice is pretty durable.

And, the most popular eTip is:

1. 5 Key Features of the Facebook Timeline

Though the value of this eTip may have been lost to years of subsequent UI updates, we are proud to have performed our duty to inform our fellow internet denizens about what mattered most when Facebook first rolled out its Timeline update.

A Website Re-Do as Stunning as the Destination It Represents

Starmark has been agency of record for the Amelia Island Convention & Visitor Bureau for three years. In that time, we’ve become experts at expressing the brand and marketing the destination, including its website AmeliaIsland.com. At seven years old, the site was due for a comprehensive refresh — one that would balance strategy and analysis with creativity — and ultimately help consumers plan their trips to Amelia Island.

A strategic springboard

In order to achieve our client’s goal of becoming a best-in-class detention website, we started with an SEO audit and 150-page strategy to determine the best navigation, keywords and high-value pages based on user visits over the last 10 years. The audit revealed the high value/high priority pages that required the most attention from the team to build success.

Technical & Content Strategy + Audience Review & Journeys

The strategy also included content, analytic and technical performance audits of the current site; an extensive competitor review (32 tourism sites in all); along with a comprehensive content strategy to define the singular goal of each key section and/or page. This ensured content would logically align with a visitor’s needs and also improve SEO effectiveness. We then created an information architecture that demonstrated the current and recommended states of the entire website’s sitemap.

Information Architecture

Now that the technical and strategic needs were addressed, it was time to make it all look and sound beautiful — while ensuring functionality. We had a content migration plan as part of the strategy, and we leveraged a brand new photo/video shoot that Starmark delivered as part of the creative campaign the year before.

A hard-working site that looks and feels like paradise

Our bespoke UI design took readers on a visual journey through a breathtaking Amelia Island experience that was tailored to their individual needs and wants. Compelling features included unique micro-animations, videos and stunning imagery. Our design system and patterns ensured it was all cohesive and replicable to maintain a harmonious look and feel on desktop and mobile.

Design System

Design Patterns

An in-depth analytics audit, which included user session history, search trends and click-path, revealed that users on the island were looking for different content than those that were not. To ensure they find exactly what they need and minimize clutter, we personalized the homepage content with the help of geo-location.

Travel Guide Slider

In order to migrate the 6,853-page site, we reviewed and organized all pages into four categories: pages that were duplicates, pages that could be migrated as is, pages that needed to be created as new, and pages that needed to be deleted. This extensive clean-up eliminated 6,102 pages, resulting in 841 pages on the new site, which included 425 business listings, 225 blog posts, and 146 events. The next step was to architect a database that organized the business listings into categories and tags, allowing us to filter the listings and further optimize the site.

Starmark’s writing team crafted 25 high-value pages of informative, SEO-driven copy that told the story of Amelia Island brand’s eloquent tone and voice. We also wrote the introductory copy for all 10 of the site’s Travel Guides, which invited the reader to immerse themselves into each unique experience.

The next wave

Dynamic, immersive and highly effective, the new AmeliaIsland.com website launched in October 2023; and feedback from the industry and our media partners so far has been highly complimentary. But our work is never done. As we host and manage the site, we continue to measure and optimize as needed with ongoing content marketing, search engine optimization, and performance optimization programs. The strategy is informed by the topics our targets are searching for and ensures we continue to provide fresh, relevant content for users as well as search engines.

The new AmeliaIsland.com website was an exciting opportunity for Starmark to build upon its partnership with the Amelia Island CVB. The website introduced inspirational new ways to showcase the breadth and depth of the destination. As a result, Amelia Island is on target to achieve record-setting visitation numbers for the third year in a row.
— Paul Beirnes, Vice President, Amelia Island Convention & Visitors Bureau

Now Open: Boggy Creek goes even bigger in VR

Following the success of the attraction’s first foray into VR for B2B sales, Boggy Creek Airboat Adventures has worked with Starmark to expand its footprint in VR. What we’re calling Boggy Creek 2.0 includes an overhauled sales experience for travel planners and made it publicly accessible for the first time.

Improving on a winning formula

The original version of the Boggy Creek VR experience was created as a way to bring Boggy Creek to travel planners around the world during the travel disruptions of the global pandemic. Now on the heels of a Best in Show win at the 2023 Flagler Awards, the new version of Boggy Creek VR launches to the public.

Taking Boggy Creek to the wider world

While this new and improved version is still primarily used as a tool to book more group sales, it will also be persistently available as a meta theme park within the Engage Metaworld. Now visitors from any continent can visit Boggy Creek in VR before deciding to come in person.

Like version 1.0, this new version is still anchored by our two-minute airboat experience, where visitors can sit in a scale recreation of one of the airboats for a VR-enhanced video showing all the park has to offer. As the video plays, VR airboats zoom across the Everglades waters in front of the viewer, gators gather around the boat and butterflies flutter past.

The Starmark team also added VR recreations of signage throughout the grounds, like education about Everglades birds, a history wall about Kissimmee and a gator guide photo op.

More lifelike than ever

Boggy Creek VR 2.0 takes advantage of additional optimizations to create a lifelike experience that runs great on widely available headsets, like the Meta Quest 2. On more powerful VR devices and desktop versions of Engage, the visual fidelity is even higher. Hear birds chirp in 360 degree sound, listen to the wind, watch the sun disappear behind trees and beams. It all adds up to an experience that’s more immersive than before.

Animal trainers and educational experiences

The new Boggy Creek VR 2.0 features completely new interactions for visitors — and some major enhancements to current ones. The previous version included a butterfly garden, but the new version more realistically captures the in-park experience with a screen-enclosed setting full of accurate recreations of the native Florida plants that serve as food sources. Several different species of butterfly are represented, showing the incredible variety of species native to the state.

Similarly, throughout the park, watchful VR visitors will see other native species, like the birds that make the park their home in real life.

And speaking of critters, Starmark also overhauled the Alligator area, creating an enclosure more like the one visitors experience at the Kissimmee attraction — as well as adding lots more immersion to the fossil and gem mining flume. Now visitors can really hear the water rush — and even pick up the gems.

The Starmark team also added real Boggy Creek animal trainers to this version. Visitors can give themselves a self-guided tour of the attraction by launching dimensional avatar recordings that are modeled after the real animal trainers at the park.

This is one of our most immersive VR projects to date. We’ve loved the opportunity to work with such a forward-thinking partner, and we can’t wait to see how we can bring more and more business opportunities to life through VR.
— Brett Circe, Starmark Chief Digital Officer

A real-world reward for VR visitors

To publicize the public launch, Starmark created a new page about this VR experience on the Boggy Creek website, as well as organic social assets the park’s team can add to its feed. It’s all part of our effort to create a stronger connection between the virtual world and the real one. In fact, when you go check out Boggy Creek in VR for yourself, you’ll see we’ve included a way to win a real-life reward for your real-life tour of Boggy Creek hidden within the VR experience — namely a coupon code for a free gem and fossil mining experience. This new addition provides a clear way to track engagement between the VR experience and real visitors at Boggy Creek.

The Boggy Creek VR Experience is available on every major VR headset (including the new Meta Quest 3), Mac, PC and Chromebook computers. You can also access it on phones and tablets running the Engage iOS and Android app. You can always find the entrance to Boggy Creek on the top floor of the Enterprise plaza in the Engage Metaworld.

New CHS website brings home prestigious Aster Award

The recently renovated Catholic Health Services website just won major 2023 accolades — a bronze Aster Award, one of the healthcare industry’s most prestigious marketing awards.

The new site features a thoroughly researched and completely overhauled information architecture, navigation and approach to design, putting user experience at the center of the design process. After all, people who are using a hospital site are usually doing so at very challenging times in their lives. The new site acknowledges this reality, making it far easier for visitors to find what they are looking for.

Says Linda Lamers, Senior Director of Marketing/Communications for CHS, “Winning this award is not just about the recognition but also about the impact our website has made on our users and the broader online community. It demonstrates that our dedication to providing an exceptional user experience, innovative design, and top-notch functionality has not gone unnoticed.”

Content for the new site is also reorganized around Catholic Health Services’ commitment to a lifelong continuum of care. This reorientation brings the site in line with the larger mission of the entire CHS system.

Winning this award is not just about the recognition but also about the impact our website has made on our users and the broader online community. It demonstrates that our dedication to providing an exceptional user experience, innovative design, and top-notch functionality has not gone unnoticed.
— Linda Lamers, Senior Director of Marketing/Communications for CHS

About the Aster Awards

The Aster Awards is one of the largest and most respected national/international competitions of its kind. This elite program has recognized outstanding healthcare professionals for excellence in their advertising & marketing efforts for over 20 years.

All awards were issued for entries that received top marks from judges placing them in the top 16% of the nation for advertising excellence. Judging criteria included creativity, layout and design, functionality, message effectiveness, production quality and overall appeal and execution.

For more about the Aster Awards, visit asterawards.com.

A website relaunch with a healthcare leader

Catholic Health Services (CHS), one of the largest not-for-profit post-acute healthcare systems in the Southeast U.S., cares for 6,500 people of all faiths daily. Four medical campuses housing skilled nursing facilities, acute medical rehabilitation hospitals, home health agencies, assisted living facilities and in-patient hospice units: eighteen affordable senior housing communities for the independent low-income elderly, two Catholic cemeteries and five early education and childcare. In 2023, Starmark partnered with CHS to create a new healthcare web presence that put patient needs at the forefront while highlighting what makes the system’s care so special.

The Diagnosis: Unconnected Dots

The #1 differentiator for Catholic Health Services is its commitment to a lifelong Continuum of Care. While competitors offer the same core services — physical therapy, skilled nursing or home health — few match the depth and breadth of the system across a patient’s entire lifetime. CHS can coordinate and deliver a full range of highly-specialized healthcare services, covering all needs from the beginning of one’s healthcare journey until they regain independence, without the extra time, stress and recordkeeping risks of using multiple providers.

What the CHS and Starmark team found was that most patients didn’t know what Continuum of Care was — or why they should care. Few even realized that CHS offered multiple services. Physical therapy patients thought they had to go elsewhere for home health, and skilled nursing patients had no idea CHS offered stroke rehabilitation. This finding became the driving business imperative for the new website.

Homepage copy and video illustrations emphasize the why and how of the Continuum of Care

The Treatment Plan

People using a hospital site are usually doing so at very challenging times in their lives – whether a future patient, current patient or a family member of someone in need of care. It was critical for the new website to acknowledge this reality. Our mission was to make it far easier for visitors to find what they are looking for, as well as:

Create compelling ways to convey the importance of the CHS Continuum of Care
Instill a consistent, engaging visual identity and voice throughout
Unite all service lines under the Continuum of Care mission — while still prioritizing each service’s unique selling points and expertise

Starmark began with in-depth stakeholder interviews that built a comprehensive understanding of opportunities. Both teams then collaborated closely on an Agile roadmap to update the information architecture, user personas and journeys.

Information Architecture

User Personas

Putting Every Visitor At The Center

Starmark conducted a best-in-class industry website review, research and testing to create the new design system and site experience. Many new features elevated the user experience significantly, ensuring that visitors stay at the center of the design process, just as the CHS Continuum of Care mission centers on every patient’s individual healthcare journey.

Design System & Patterns

Making Answers Simpler to Find

The Starmark team simplified the global and in-page navigational structures for the new CHS site. The goal was to make it dramatically easier to find what a visitor is looking for.

Simplified architecture makes it faster to find the answers a visitor seeks and view all core services.

FAQs

Content was also formatted to match. The voice, tone and length of content were tuned to create greater engagement and a more scannable experience for seniors and families facing challenging health situations.

Simplifying donations

Donations help fund the ongoing care provided by the not-for-profit health system, so making sure donors could easily help support the mission was critical. Starmark simplified donation forms to make giving simple. We also overhauled back-end integrations to streamline financial handling.

Donation Form

One major improvement in the new site is the intuitive, simplified design system. The update replaced dozens of custom content block styles with flexible, repeatable patterns. The new design system was created specifically to make it easier for several CHS content managers to make updates to keep information current. Reducing the proprietary and custom code created a system that’s much easier to maintain without a full-time team of developers on staff at CHS.

Celebrating Healthier Outcomes

The new website now showcases the impressive range of CHS healthcare expertise clearly and convincingly. A consistent thread of caring and cohesion runs through from the homepage to every service line.

”Our goal was to align all healthcare services to the bigger CHS System mission: a commitment to lifelong continuum of care for every patient,” says Linda Lamers, Senior Director of Marketing/Communications for CHS. “The reorganized content, innovative design and top-notch functionality all demonstrate our dedication to providing an exceptional experience for patients, loved ones, healthcare teams and the greater community.”

The reorganized content, innovative design and top-notch functionality all demonstrate our dedication to providing an exceptional experience for patients, loved ones, healthcare teams and the greater community.
— Linda Lamers, Senior Director of Marketing/Communications, Catholic Health Services

The new website didn’t just impress patients and families

The CHS team also took home a coveted bronze Aster Award in 2023. The Aster Awards are among the healthcare industry’s most prestigious national/international marketing competitions, honoring outstanding healthcare professionals for excellence in advertising & marketing efforts for over 20 years.

Two Starmark Clients Take Home Top Flagler Honors

This year’s Flagler Awards during the Florida Governor’s Conference on Tourism proved to be a big night for two Starmark clients — Amelia Island Convention and Visitors Bureau and Boggy Creek Airboat Adventures. Among other wins, Amelia Island took home the Best in Show honor for marketing budgets over $2 million, while Boggy Creek won Best in Show for marketing budgets under $500,000.

This VR experience has transformed how we’re able to share Boggy Creek with our biggest potential customers in Europe and South America. Asking someone to hop into a headset with us for a VR tour is a lot more appealing than sending a video.
— Margie Bryan, Owner of Boggy Creek Airboat Adventures

Best of Show Wins

Entered into the Mobile Marketing category, the It’s an Island thing weather-triggered ads for Amelia Island CVB took home the top honor for its stunning visual perspective on Northeast Florida island experiences and a 34.4% year-over-year increase in room bookings. With a fun, whimsical and completely ownable approach, the campaign has successfully positioned Amelia Island with its loyalist travelers and those visiting for the first time. In particular, the weather-triggered ads played up the idea of escape from the winter blues for travelers in cold-weather areas.

It’s a thrill to be honored by our peers from across the state. But the best part of this is being able to share with the world the things that make Amelia Island so incredibly special.
— Amy Boek, Chief Marketing Officer for Amelia Island CVB

The Boggy Creek Airboat Adventures VR Experience took home its own top honor in its budget category for a completely new way to share Boggy Creek with overseas travel planners. The idea was born during the travel restrictions of the pandemic when familiarity trips from overseas weren’t possible. Shipping headsets to planners for virtual reality tours helped Boggy Creek keep it’s #1 revenue source of group bookings going even during the depths of travel interruptions.

Additional Winning Entries

In addition to these two Best of Show honors, both Amelia Island and Boggy Creek won awards in other categories.

Amelia Island took home a Bronze Award for Print Advertising and a Bronze award for Radio Advertising. Amelia Island also took home two Henry Awards (First Place) for Mobile Marketing and Social Media Marketing. The Boggy Creek VR Experience also won Bronze in the Trade Resource Material category.

About the Flagler Awards

The Flagler Awards is an annual statewide competition recognizing outstanding Florida tourism marketing. The program was created by VISIT FLORIDA to honor the countless individuals and organizations that help position Florida as the No. 1 travel destination in the world. Each year the Flagler Awards pay tribute to the determined efforts of those who use their skill, resourcefulness, creativity and innovative spirit to market Florida to the world.

This year’s awards ceremony was held during the Florida Governor’s Conference on Tourism at Rosen Shingle Creek in Orlando, Florida.

Brett Circe Shares Current-Day Metaverse Business Success Stories with SFIMA

If you weren’t able to make it in person for Brett Circe’s presentation on July 20, you can still get the cliff’s notes version of how businesses today are using virtual reality — with major upsides.

B2B applications

B2B companies have handfuls of ways to benefit from the metaverse. Everything from prototyping to design to planning to training to sales to marketing to simulations and maintenance can be done in the metaverse in ways that improve speed, increase safety and reduce errors.

Brett also debuted Starmark’s VR B2B sales tool created for Boggy Creek Airboat Adventures, which won bronze at this year’s MMA Smartie awards.

Student recruitment in higher education

We already wrote a definitive article on current metaverse applications in higher education, but Brett gave a deep-dive on how Morehouse college is using the metaverse in instruction with great results for student engagement and retention.

Virtual concierge services in travel & hospitality

Qatar Airlines and Emirates Airlines both have VR concierge services, allowing travelers to tour planes and pick seats at real 1:1 scale. Hilton is using Oculus as a way to train their legion of 10,000 team members in a way that creates greater empathy with guests. Brett also shared a proof-of-concept for a virtual trade show, bringing the best of Central Florida to worldwide travel planners.

Governments and municipalities

One of the surprising stories of the Metaverse is the proliferation of municipal and government projects. We wrote all about this in our article on how municipalities are embracing VR.

During his presentation, Brett shared details of how Barbados, Boston, Austin, Orlando and Miami Gardens are each using the Metaverse differently to add new dimensions to their experiences. You can read about each of these in the article linked above.

Training and mental health services in the healthcare industry

Brett also shared current use cases in children’s hospitals for providing a little escapism for young patients during procedures that could otherwise be scary. And, of course, the medical industry has been a strong early adopter of VR for physician and surgeon training.

There’s more happening in the Metaverse every day

We hope you enjoyed this brief recap of what Brett shared. For more information on SFIMA and its upcoming educational events, visit their site. If you’d like your own Metaverse deep-dive or a catch up with Starmark about how VR, AR and MR can benefit your business, contact us.

Can Threads Get Ahead if Twitter Isn’t Dead?

Amidst the evolving landscape of social media, a new player has emerged – Threads. Operated by Mark Zuckerberg’s Meta, Threads is described as “Instagram’s text-based conversation app,” aiming to be a “less toxic version of Twitter.”

While Threads had a sensational launch, Twitter still remains a hot topic, and there aren’t any meaningful signs that Threads has significantly cannibalized Twitter market share.

Several Starmarkers were at the 2023 MMA Possible Conference (to accept our SMARTIES award for the Boggy Creek VR experience) in April for Elon Musk’s interview with Linda Yaccarino, former Chairman of MMA and now CEO of X Corp. It’s strange, looking back, to realize we were actually witnessing Yaccarino’s very unconventional job interview for the top job at X Corp.

X’s new direction may not create growth, but it’s keeping the platform afloat

During that POSSIBLE Conference conversation, Elon Musk unveiled his vision to “maximize unregretted user time” on Twitter. He also reiterated the same beliefs we’ve heard from him previously that freedom of speech is crucial for advancing humanity and democracy.

What was new news to us and the room full of thousands of other advertisers were updates to the platform allowing targeted buying against relevant content and new tools to help advertisers avoid toxic and hateful content appearing in conjunction with their advertising.

Despite these positive signs, the overall instability with the platform and confusion among advertisers has resulted in a 59% decline in U.S. ad revenue.

Threads may not be the answer Twitter exiles want

Despite an initial surge of sign-ups, Threads has faced challenges in user retention. The Wall Street Journal reports that daily active users on Threads have dropped by 70%, with the time spent on the app reduced to just 4 minutes, a fraction of the initial 21 minutes during its launch.

Threads lacks several features that users find essential on other platforms, such as a chronological feed and direct messaging capabilities. Additionally, the actual purpose of Threads remains unclear, leading to a lack of compelling content and engagement.

Couple these oversights with the continued functionality of X (neé Twitter), and despite Elon Musk’s controversial changes, the platform remains operational, making it difficult for Threads to establish itself as a meaningful alternative.

The upside for advertisers

While Threads does not currently offer advertising opportunities, there are indications that Meta’s Instagram team is working on introducing branded content tools in the near future, once Threads gains critical mass. Until then, marketers are advised to use hashtags or text to clearly disclose paid partnerships in their content.

It’s essential to point out that Instagram, another one of Meta’s most successful brands, initially launched without ads but now thrives on advertising revenue. This suggests that Threads may follow a similar trajectory, potentially providing marketers with a new avenue for promoting their brands and products.

It stands to reason that Meta’s engineers may be prioritizing rolling out advertising features and a management platform to capitalize on that previously mentioned advertising revenue decline suffered by Twitter.

Stay tuned for updates

We’ll be keeping a close eye on Threads as it strives to carve a niche as a “less toxic” alternative to Twitter, and we’ll be updating this article (plus writing more on this subject) as news emerges.

Starmark Launches New Strategic Support Subscription Service

Starmark is excited to launch its latest offering, the Starmark Subscription. This new subscription service aims to significantly change the way businesses approach strategic marketing initiatives — with access to top marketing minds when they need them most.

Move your business, not just your project

In today’s competitive landscape, strategic thinking is the key to success. However, many businesses can’t spare already-strapped time and resources to fuel this critical marketing function. That’s why the Starmark Subscription allows businesses to leverage ongoing strategic guidance while still enjoying the flexibility of project-based billing.

According to Starmark VP of Client Service, Katy Gewartowski, this need has been emerging with Starmark’s clients over the last several years. Further bolstering the business case, a recent sentiment survey by Starmark showed that lack of time for strategy is the #1 concern keeping marketing leaders up at night.

This is a natural extension for us. We heard from more and more of our project-based clients that their teams were struggling with strategy, so we decided to make strategy support more accessible in a way that’s really unique within our industry.
— Katy Gewartowski, Starmark Vice President, Client Service

Comprehensive strategy service is a standard offering as part of any AOR (Agency of Record) relationship across the industry. But with the seismic shift of the last decade away from exclusive retainer-based AOR relationships to more project-based or roster-based agency relationships, business-wide strategic counsel often gets overlooked. The Starmark Subscription fills that gap without the long-term contractual obligations and large price tags that come along with traditional retainers.

Says Jacqui Hartnett, Starmark’s President, “As an Agile Agency, because of the more integrated way we work and plan work through roadmaps, we often find ourselves serving that de-facto role as a partner’s strategic AOR, but we’re often only doing that at the point when we’re putting together a project roadmap or annual plan roadmap. There’s just so much more we can do to foster holistic business results if we’re having an ongoing strategic discussion with our partners. That’s the single most exciting part of this new offering. We get to help our clients achieve more.”

That’s the single most exciting part of this new offering. We get to help our clients achieve more.
— Jacqui Hartnett, Starmark President

Starmark Subscription — How it Works:

The journey begins with a comprehensive discovery session with a Starmark strategist designed to gain deep insights into your business objectives, pain points and needs.

Building on the initial discovery conversations, Starmark will assemble a specialized team to address blind spots and areas of improvement for your brand or business. Then that team meets with the client monthly to cover updates, industry insights, business pivots and action plans.

A flexible service model

In addition to having a dedicated strategic consultant with industry expertise, a Starmark Subscription also allows a business to tap into any of Starmark’s subject matter experts, depending on the company’s needs and objectives.

“We wanted to make the pricing simple and predictable,” says Starmark Chief Digital Officer, Brett Circe, “But this isn’t designed one-size-fits-all. Every subscription can have different areas of emphasis, depending upon where we can make the biggest business impact.”

Whether you require assistance in reviewing your advertising performance, analyzing data and analytics, optimizing your digital presence or enhancing customer experiences, Starmark has you covered. Additionally, all subscribers receive ongoing strategic consulting, resource planning assistance and creative insights.

This isn’t one-size-fits-all. Every subscription is going to have different areas of emphasis.
— Brett Circe, Starmark Chief Digital Officer

In fact, the agency already has early adopters of its subscription service in the higher education and healthcare industries, and the areas of emphasis for these subscriptions are substantially different, even at these early stages.

To learn more about the Starmark Subscription and how it can benefit your business, visit starmark.com/subscription or get in touch with us.

Brand Storytelling Essentials: Finding Your North Star

Why do some brands have a gravitational pull that attracts customers so effortlessly? You know the ones. Their social content stops you faster than a mom arm across the passenger seat of your childhood Camry.

So what’s driving these brands? Are they better dressed? Do they tell better stories? Are they the most interesting archetypes in the room? Well, the answer could be yes on all counts, but let’s pump the brakes here. Because there’s something even more fundamental that all these brands have in common: an undeniable sense of self.

These beloved brands know exactly who they are. And that clarity allows them to express their authentic voice and identity. On the receiving end, we embrace these brands as our friends, loves, teachers — we just seem to care more for them in ways that go beyond a transactional relationship.

So how do marketers reach brand suave status? Let’s explore where to start.

Tap into your single source of truth.

Instead of trying to be all things to all people, start with understanding your Why. This begins with defining your brand purpose. You’ll want to be crystal clear on why your brand matters – beyond making a profit. It should reflect the values and beliefs of the company and resonate with your customers, employees and stakeholders. With a singular focus, you’ll be able to connect like a lightning rod to all your targets.

Brands like Nike, Apple, Patagonia, Toms and Dove do this extremely well. And although these brands differ greatly, they all have a solid values system that weaves empathy and understanding of their audiences through everything they do.

Using Dove as an example, its brand purpose is “to make beauty a source of confidence, not anxiety.” All of their messaging and campaign executions are built on this single promise, never straying from their mission. It’s no wonder their culture-defining campaigns for the Dove Self-Esteem Project, launched by Ogilvy, resonate with women of all ages, complexions and body types. Regardless of the channel, the message is always simple, consistent and emotionally on point.

Dove Reverse Selfie 1 — Copyright Dove via Campaigns of the World

Your brand may be trying to tell you something

Listen closely. If your brand’s voice feels a little strangled, then open up to some new possibilities.

At Starmark, we have powerful branding tools for marketers, starting with a process for uncovering the tenets of a brand. We call it North Star. Mostly because this exercise shines a light on the company’s values, personality and identity in a way that guides every effort across branding, marketing and the customer experience.

One benefit to developing your North Star is that it is extremely effective at creating consensus across the organization. Imagine your C-suite, Marketing, Sales, Ops, Digital, HR and Finance teams all on the same page. (Insert angelic sound effect here.)

Suddenly, your organization has its own band of brand ambassadors strumming in perfect harmony. The North Star process also does a great job of shaking off the analysis paralysis that is commonplace in boardrooms when companies approach branding on their own.

But one of our favorite outputs from the North Star is the brand triangle, which serves as shorthand for making brand-critical decisions quicker.

Here’s the North Star for The Main Las Olas. When the Stiles Corporation needed a world-class vision for their downtown business hub of Fort Lauderdale, we created this to inform the personality and identity. Once we had the foundation, the North Star phrase was used as a sounding board for the naming, branding, messaging and visioning.

Today, The Main is a thriving destination in the heart of downtown that is living up to its brand promise. For more on this Class A city block, see our case study.

What’s in your toolbox?

Once your North Star is established, other aspects like positioning, mission and vision come into play to help differentiate and establish a unique identity in the mind of your audience (more on those coming soon!).

One thing is for sure, new and even established brands can benefit from a brand reset. With the right building blocks in place, you’ll be primed to create those meaningful narratives that will attract your tribe to your campfire.

Are you looking to boost your brand presence? Get in touch for tools and training.

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